Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding, reported high occupancy in its Dubai hotels in the months of February-April 2010 maintaining a robust average room rate. Encouraged by this and by strong growth in its business hotels, the company is providing an update on its growth strategy, as well as revealing the name of its planned new contemporary lifestyle hotel brand, VENU Hotels, which will be launched later this year.

Strong results
Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts on the Dubai beachfront, which include Jumeirah Beach Hotel and the Madinat Jumeirah, registered occupancy of 92.5% in April and an average of 89% in February and March. Jumeirah Emirates Towers, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year as Dubai’s premier business hotel, recorded occupancy of over 75% for the February-March 2010 period, reflecting an upturn in the business and corporate markets.

In New York, Jumeirah Essex House has secured average occupancy rates of 85% during April, with strong business on the books for the late Spring and Summer seasons. Jumeirah Group’s London properties – Jumeirah Carlton Towers and Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel - show a similar strength in performance.

32 hotels signed up – 10 to open in next 18 months
In addition to the 11 Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts currently operated by the Group, Jumeirah has 32 management agreements in place to run hotels in key locations across the world. The company expects to open at least 10 new hotels within the next 18 months including Jumeirah Frankfurt, Jumeirah Messilah Beach in Kuwait, two hotels in the Maldives, Jumeirah Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, as well as properties in Al Ain, Dubai, Shanghai and others to be confirmed in the coming months.

Jumeirah Group reaffirms its growth strategy of having 60 hotels signed up by 2012. The company also feels confident that it will have 30 hotels open in 2013. A key element of the growth strategy has been the development of a second brand to complement the strengths of the Jumeirah brand.

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New contemporary lifestyle brand named
Jumeirah Group is pleased to announce that the name of this new brand will be VENU Hotels. It will be a contemporary lifestyle hotel brand and it will be launched later in 2010 when the company confirms the locations of its first set of hotels. The Group is in advanced stages of negotiation with developers interested in opening VENU branded hotels in the Middle East, Northern Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific. Further discussions with developers and investors will take place during the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference on 1-3 May 2010.

Executive Chairman Quote
Gerald Lawless, Executive Chairman of Jumeirah Group, said: “The high occupancy rates recorded at our hotels confirms that Dubai has maintained and consolidated its place as the preferred destination for discerning travellers. This, coupled with the robust performance of our business hotels in London and New York, gives us renewed confidence in rolling out our growth strategy and in confirming our plans to introduce a second brand later this year. VENU Hotels will, when launched, fulfil a clear market need and one that is highly complementary to the Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts brand. We are looking forward to a busy and exciting period opening new hotels, attracting new guests and introducing a new hotel brand concept to the world. We very much appreciate the continuing support to our parent company Dubai Holding to achieve our objectives.”